


live your life with arms wide open

by thatsmygvn (cougarlips)



Series: TWD Requests [31]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Canon Gay Character, Canon Lesbian Character, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Everybody Lives, F/F, Gen, POV Third Person, gay/lesbian solidarity ayyyy, just a couple of nerds bein bros, literally just tara and jesus being one and the same, requested but also completely self-indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2019-01-23 19:51:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12515252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cougarlips/pseuds/thatsmygvn
Summary: “Really – it’s a Saturday night. You can’t possibly expect me to believe your plans are to sit here and let me quote bad pop songs to you.”request: “I’m only here to establish an alibi.”





	live your life with arms wide open

**Author's Note:**

> lmao @ the title from "unwritten" by natasha bedingfield
> 
> requested by the ever illustrious [@greenerovia](//greenerovia.tumblr.com) on tumblr, aka jen, my enabler always in everything

A lot of things could be said about Paul Rovia: he was an asshole, an angel, Satan incarnate, Jesus himself. At the end of the day, not many people could agree on any one thing about him. Even people who knew him well had the occasional mixed feeling. He wasn’t anything in particular to any _one_  in particular; he just  _was_ : a freelancer, a thief, a con artist, a guy who got what needed to be done, done.

He sat at the bar and scoped the area, pulling his hair into a knot at the top of his head. The restaurant wasn’t particularly crowded, but it would suffice. All he needed to do was catch himself on the restaurants cameras and stay in view for an hour. That’s as long as it would take for Kal to distract their target and get their prize.

“Any drinks for you?” a voice behind him asked and he turned around, offering the woman a dazzling smile. Her nametag read Tara.

“Some water?” he requested, and she rolled her eyes with an easy grin.

“C’ _mon_ ,” she laughed, handing him the glass. “It’s a Saturday night – don’t you wanna release your inhibitions? Feel the rain on your skin?”

Paul smiled at her and her eyes crinkled around the edges. “Really?” he snickered. “You’re quoting Natasha Bedingfield to me?”

“No one else can feel it for you,” she warned, wagging her finger at him from over the bar. “Only  _you_  can let it in.”

At her deadpan expression, Paul couldn’t help his deep-bellied laugh. She joined in only a few seconds later.

“So, what are you doing here, Mystery Guy?” she asked him, turning a skewering gaze on him. “Really – it’s a Saturday night. You can’t possibly expect me to believe your plans are to sit here and let me quote bad pop songs to you.”

Paul scoffed at her. “ _Unwritten_  is a lot of things, but a bad pop song isn’t one of them. It’s iconic.”

“Iconic doesn’t automatically mean  _good_ ,” she countered.

He rolled his eyes but she still waited patiently, as if she genuinely expected an answer from him, and he found himself momentarily surprised she actually seemed to care. Her wide eyes looked black in the restaurant’s dim lighting, but they invited him to speak nonetheless.

“I’m only here to establish an alibi,” he answered with a teasing smile. At her sputtering laugh, he raised his eyebrows and his arms in a mock apologetic gesture. “I hate to admit it, but you caught me: I’m only using you so that if the cops come by asking about me, you can tell them Paul Rovia sat here for an hour and a half and judged you for your poor taste in music.”

“ _Right_ ,” she snorted. “And what would they try and charge you with?”

He shrugged. “Wouldn’t  _you_  like to know – maybe they wanna claim I walked across the street and my good looks were  _so_  shocking that it caused a pileup.”

She hummed in response, still chortling every few seconds. Then she eyed the clock on the wall, and as if that were the cue she looked at the entryway. If she’d been smiling at Paul before, her smile now seemed to radiate warmth at the woman who made her way towards the bar. As if forgetting for a moment that Paul sat there, the girl reached her hands forward and they linked with the newcomer’s, pulling her close and pressing their lips together across the bar top.

“You’re here on time?” the girl behind the counter asked.

“Not everyone is late to everything, Tara,” the blonde woman replied, and the girl behind the counter – Tara – shrugged.

“Touché,” she replied, but her smile widened and she reached forward to kiss the woman again.

“Stop,” the newcomer laughed, her face flushing. “We’re at your  _work_.”

Tara pulled away and eyed the room. Not a single person – outside of Paul – were paying them any attention. Then she shrugged. “No one cares, and if they  _did_  they’d get one hell of an earful from me and you know it.”

Then, as if remembering all at once Paul’s presence, Tara looked back at him. “This is my girlfriend, Denise!” she said with a grin. “Denise, this is Paul. He says he’s here so he has a solid alibi for when the cops come looking for him.”

“And why would the cops come looking for you?” Denise asked.

“It’s a long story,” Tara answered before Paul could make up something different. “Something about being just too damn good-looking.”

At a look Denise gave Tara, Tara continued: “I’m a lesbian. I’m not blind. I can call a guy good-looking.”

Denise turned away from Tara and held up her hand to silence her. Then she extended her other hand. “Denise Cloyd,” she introduced herself. “I’m sorry about this one,” she told him, hooking her thumb at Tara.

Paul grasped her hand firmly and smiled. “Paul Rovia. I’ve been enabling her, so she’s not the  _only_  one at fault here.”

“Yeah!” Tara exclaimed. “He’s as bad as I am, and I’ve only known him for fifteen minutes.”

At the two, Denise only sighed. It was with a smile, though, and she couldn’t stop her eyes from turning back to Tara. “Are you ready to go, or do you need to stay a bit longer? I can wait if you do.”

Tara shrugged. “I have a few things to wrap up.” Then, with a start, she turned to Paul. “Hey, do you wanna come with us tonight? We’re going to our friend’s baby shower, but really, the more the merrier.”

Paul hesitated and met Denise’s eyes, wondering if she would have any silent reservations towards him tagging along with them, but her eyes were wide and inviting behind her glasses.

“What the hell – why not?” he claimed. “Maybe I’ll even meet a cute guy while I’m there,” he teased.

**Author's Note:**

> sometimes you can request things to me on [@thatsmygvn](//thatsmygvn.tumblr.com)
> 
> also as a self-proclaimed huge mcmassive lesbian, i am tara chambler and all of her dialogue? all things i've said myself


End file.
